New era | American missionaries killed by gang in Haiti

An American couple were among three missionaries shot dead by a mob outside a church in the Haitian capital, which has endured months of extreme violence with deadly attacks on hospitals, prisons and government buildings.

Missions in Haiti, an Oklahoma-based nonprofit founded in 2000, said Davy and Natalie Lloyd and a third person were killed by gunmen Thursday evening in Port-au-Prince.

The third victim was identified by US media as Jude Montis, the Haitian director of missions in Haiti.

“Davy, Natalie and Jude were shot dead by the gang around 9 o’clock this evening,” Missions in Haiti said on its Facebook page on Friday. ‘We are all devastated.’

According to a police spokesman, “the bandits entered the house and looted it before killing the missionaries.”

An investigation is underway, the official said.

In an earlier Facebook post, Missions in Haiti said the missionaries were ambushed by a gang traveling in three vehicles.

“Davy was brought to the house bound and beaten,” it said. “The gang then grabbed our trucks, loaded everything they wanted and left.”

Members of another gang then arrived and “went into full attack mode,” the post added.

In response to the deaths, the White House called for the rapid deployment of a Kenyan-led multinational force to Haiti to tackle rampant gang violence.

“The security situation in Haiti cannot wait,” a National Security Council spokesperson said, emphasizing that President Joe Biden had pledged on Thursday to support the “accelerated deployment” of the force in talks with the Kenyan president.

“Our thoughts go out to the families of the dead as they experience unimaginable grief,” the spokesperson added.

A spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also expressed his condolences, calling it “just another example of the violence that spares no one in Haiti.”

The main airport partially reopened this week after being closed since early March, when the powerful and well-armed gangs that control much of the country launched a coordinated rampage they say was aimed at overthrowing then-Prime Minister Ariel Henry .

Henry, who has since resigned, was unable to return home while abroad at the time of the attacks due to gang activity.

Haiti has been plagued by poverty, natural disasters, political instability and violence for decades. It has not had a president since the assassination of Jovenel Moise in 2021 and it has no sitting parliament.

The last election was in 2016, and a new transitional governing council is struggling to assert its authority as food becomes scarce, tens of thousands flee their homes and the healthcare system teeters on the brink of collapse.

Lamarre Lamy, a pastor at International Missions Outreach, was shocked by the deaths of the missionaries and said the work of such humanitarians is crucial for young Haitians amid the violence and chaos.

“Many young people study thanks to their support at the university,” he says.

“We shouldn’t die like this, you can’t spend a day without hearing about murder,” Lamy added.

Kenyan President William Ruto vowed during his visit to Washington that his country’s security deployment in Haiti would try to crush the gangs.

The Biden administration had extensively searched for a country to lead the mission to Haiti after ruling out sending US troops, which have a long history of interventions in the country.